Word of the Day: The Count of Monte Cristo (17A: Like the Count of Monte Cristo => IMPRISONED) —
The Count of Monte Cristo (French: Le Comte de Monte-Cristo) is an adventure novel written by French author Alexandre Dumas (père) completed in 1844. It is one of the author's most popular works, along with The Three Musketeers. Like many of his novels, it was expanded from plot outlines suggested by his collaborating ghostwriterAuguste Maquet.
The story takes place in France, Italy, and islands in the Mediterranean during the historical events of 1815–1839: the era of the Bourbon Restoration through the reign of Louis-Philippe of France. It begins on the day that Napoleon left his first island of exile, Elba, beginning the Hundred Days period when Napoleon returned to power. The historical setting is a fundamental element of the book, an adventure story centrally concerned with themes of hope, justice, vengeance, mercy, and forgiveness. It centers on a man who is wrongfully imprisoned, escapes from jail, acquires a fortune, and sets about exacting revenge on those responsible for his imprisonment.
Before he can marry his fiancée Mercédès, Edmond Dantès, a nineteen-year-old Frenchman, and first mate of the Pharaon, is falsely accused of treason, arrested, and imprisoned without trial in the Château d'If, a grim island fortress off Marseille. A fellow prisoner, Abbé Faria, correctly deduces that his jealous rival Fernand Mondego, envious crewmate Danglars, and double-dealing magistrate De Villefort turned him in. Faria inspires his escape and guides him to a fortune in treasure. As the powerful and mysterious Count of Monte Cristo (Italy), Dantès arrives from the Orient to enter the fashionable Parisian world of the 1830s and avenge himself on the men who conspired to destroy him.
The book is considered a literary classic today. According to Lucy Sante, "The Count of Monte Cristo has become a fixture of Western civilization's literature." (wikipedia)
• • •
[Man, Sammy the RICE owl looks like he will mess you up]
As you might know, I liked yesterday's puzzle fine. But once again I find myself on a Saturday thinking (happily), "Aha, here it is—my Friday puzzle!" This one had the zip and freshness and the whoosh-whoosh zoom-zoom quality that I have grown to expect but now seldom get from Fridays. Whereas Saturdays used to be ordeals (sometimes enjoyable and rewarding, but frequently grueling and occasionally humiliating). And now ... criss cross. I'm kind of getting used to it now. I feel a little bad for Friday, but I am very happy for Saturday, because, well, we get delightful grids like this one. This appears to be a debut, and feels very much like it was made by a young person—someone fluent in Online and Taylor Swift, someone totally at ease with LGBTQ+ terminology, maybe someone who has high SAT SCORES and got into RICE but is gonna take a GAP YEAR before starting college, and yet ... the puzzle doesn't play as an obnoxiously generationally niche exercise at all. Far from exclusionary, it feels broad-minded, open-hearted, and wide in its scope of interest. You don't need lots and lots of proper nouns to signal what generational cohort you're from. Whoever the constructor is, it's best to just be ... yourself, and try to bring *everyone* along for the ride, especially people who are (demographically) nothing like you. You don't have to be young to do this. Do your thing, remember there are huge swaths of the solving world who are nothing like you, invite them to your party too, and bam, you got yourself a good time. (I actually have no idea how old this constructor is, btw, lol)
For the first few moments of this solve, I thought I was gonna get roughed up today. A rock-climbing ... grip? The grips have names? What in the world? And the British term for tea is ... not CUPPA? Is it ACUPPA? ... no? Yeesh. Trouble. I abandoned that corner, leaving just one sad piece of crosswordese behind (Anna SUI) (I'm sure she's not sad, but her solitude is sad, and it's sad (to me) that she was the only answer I got in that corner at first). I got REAPS APP SPACE- but then petered out there too. Finally another crosswordese hero came to my rescue—the mighty morphin' Brontë orphan Jane EYRE! Her little section went in at Monday speed, and now I had a (CRIMP-less!) toehold. I had wanted IMPRISONED for the Count of Monte Cristo clue, and now I could see it was right, so whoosh, there goes the Count, and then Whoosh Whoosh there goes SAT SCORES and PRIDE PARADES and POLE DANCE and the entire NW, like fireworks. Down into the center, HEADDESKing into the SW ... it all got so kinetic, so fast, all from that Jane EYRE spark. What a lady. Once I got going, I didn't struggle at all. Just rode the roller-coaster to its thrilling conclusion high atop Mount GAP YEAR (so weird to end in that part of the grid, but weird is good!) (13D: Break before starting college, for some).
While I didn't struggle, I did have a few hesitations. "ART what? MUSEUM? No. Hmm, let's see ... ah, CENTER. Fine. Here's another: BORED TO TEARS! But ... wait, a [Smidge] is not a TAT, it's a TAD, so ... BORED TO ... what? Oh, BORED TO DEATH! Yeah, that also works. How 'bout DROPS A ... well I want HINT, but it could be CLUE (could it?), so I better check ... yep, it's HINT, alright alright." This was the kind of effort I was putting in—mild patience. It helped a lot that after every ??? moment I was rewarded with a solid-to-great answer. BORED TO DEATH! I miss that show.
The biggest challenge in the puzzle, for me, was "oh dear lord how do you spell 'Denise' again?" (35D: Soul singer Williams => DENIECE). I had a "Y" in there at one point (DENEYCE??). But the crosses were all very gettable, so the struggle was not long. Only other notable sticking point was when I wrote in SOOTHE for SOLACE (both six letters, both starting SO-, both fitting the clue) (24A: Comfort). Oh, and I had no idea that a zythophile liked BEER (56A: What a zythophile loves). Funny to have such a refined, erudite-sounding BEER term today after getting the much more downmarket BEERAMID yesterday. I also didn't know "BETTY"—thank god for crosses. I don't think I know that song. Is BETTY BATTY? Let's find out:
Appropriate to end on "I DIG" because I do. Dig. I do dig this puzzle. I dig it so much that I don't mind encountering the occasional bit of old-school crosswordese like "I DIG"! It crosses "I GOTCHA!" They have that dumb reduplicative clue thing (["Understood," once] + ["Understood"]) *and* they both feature the pronoun "I" *and* I don't care. The insane clue on DEL TACO (11D: Fast food chain whose name becomes another company when its last two letters are removed) makes up for any infelicity there, as does the rest of the grid, which is lovely. See you tomorrow.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
P.S. ENBIES are "N.B."s—short for "non-binary" (43A: Some users of they/them pronouns, informally).
P.P.S. I almost forgot to complain about RUMOUR (2D: Bit of tea, to Brits). Ah, f*** it, I won't complain, just explain. "Tea" is a (very modern, right?) term for "dirt" "gossip" etc. So, a term for "rumor," which the Brits spell RUMOUR. I did not know that that particular bit of slang played in Britain. I thought we were looking for specifically British slang, not just British spelling. Of course I also thought we were looking for something beverage-related, so ... anyway, RUMOUR, there you go
Like OFL, I wanted cUppa(something) for the bit of tea at 2D Read "links" instead of "link" in the 6A clue so thought fore instead of NSFW huGe before MEGA at 16A @Rex BORED TO tEArs before DEATH at 21D No clue how to spell the first part SRIRACHA (27A) Share before STOCK at 27D
The 34D clue should have included "for short" or "(abbr.)" because it's short for CHEMistry LABoratory
Last letter entered was the E at 39Ax35D, because it kinda had to be HEAD DESK x DENIECE, but I'd never heard of either. The happy music came as a surprise.
Like Rex, I liked this a lot. And I must add that I especially agree with this comment: “Do your thing, remember there are huge swaths of the solving world who are nothing like you, invite them to your party too, and bam, you got yourself a good time.” I’ll recall that the next time Rex slams a puzzle that others enjoy.
The north was the tougher section with CRIMP and the British slang (which was gettable, but I just missed it - and a much smaller margin for error with tougher Saturday crosses). Wondering if DEL TACO is a regional thing - if so, do they make good burritos?
HEADDESK as a verb was totally new to me, but I’m guessing it’s been around for years and I’m just so out of touch that I’ve never heard of it (I did drop NSFW right in with no crosses though, so there is a glimmer of hope for me. However I only know Jane EYRE and the rest of the Brontë babes from CrossWorld though).
I wonder if the astrophysicists in the crowd will quibble over SPACE TIME being characterized as “four-dimensional”. I don’t have a dog in the hunt, and probably can’t even articulate it properly, but apparently there is some disagreement as to whether TIME is actually considered a dimension. Apparently the math breaks down or something like that. Definitely close enough for CrossWorld in my view, but others more knowledgeable than me may disagree.
This puzzle was playful and clever with a bit of bite, just the way I like it.
As an ENBy member of the commentariat, gentle and loving reminder that anything folks post about they/them pronouns or non-binary trans people will be read by at least one and probably more than a few of us. It’s hard enough out there already for trans folks, so please be kind. 💕
Especially given that context, I was delighted to see ENBIES included, probably a debut yeah? When @Lewis is back on Monday I humbly request he let us know how many debuts today featured.
I found this puzzle delightfully fresh and I agree with Rex that it felt like it brought people from all generations along with fair crossing. An exception that I was worried about is whether DENIECE would be fairly crossed for all solvers. And @Conrad has already confirmed that it wasn’t, exactly. Also had the same thought that the cluing for CHEM LAB should have indicated abbreviation.
Do SATSCORES appear on transcripts? Back in my day they would be sent independently by the testing company to the college.
I loved so many clue-answer pairs that if I tried to list them all this post would be even longer than usual. But POLEDANCE was a fave for the cleverness and mild risqué factor, and SPACETIME was fun for the nerd points.
All in all, thank you Spencer for a fabulous, fun, and breezy start to the weekend.
All time fastest Saturday for me even though I was nodding off. The puzzle was a gas, so I fought to maintain consciousness. Looking forward to more from this constructor.
Yesterday was one of the easiest Fridays ever and today’s was done in record time for a Saturday with nary a glitch That’s fine, I suppose, but I’m generally expecting Fri/Sat to be more challenging (and more of a blow to my ego).
Pretty whoosh-whoosh, zoom-zoom for me too, except the NW, where I stalled at the beginning and again at the end. I loved the clues for RUMOURS and POLE DANCE but they definitely fooled me. I thought I had outsmarted “do some spinning at a club” because I was supposed to think of spinning classes at a gym, but I was sure it was some kind of DJ. I loved that aha.
I got Naticked in the NW. Being unfamiliar with both English slang and rock-climbing, I had "chimp" for the grip and "humour" for bit of tea, and both words looked like they could fit. Alas.
Now, a lot of those are what I call 'false debuts'. For example, PRIDEPARADE has appeared six times; this just the first time it has appeared in plural. Similarly, SATSCORE has appeared five times; IMPRISON, IMPRISONS AND IMPRISONMENT have all appeared. PROMOCODES has appeared.
DENEICE, DROPSAHINT and BOREDTODEATH are, as far as I can tell, true debuts.
ENBIES has appeared before, in a puzzle by our own Nancy (with Will Nediger) last year, and ENBY has also appeared twice.
A mostly breezy and enjoyable ride...except for the NW corner, which completely did me in. As with Rex's puzzle, Anna SUI was alone there for the longest time, and after getting RUMOUR (clever!), MORE, and PRIDE PARADE, I still didn't know CRIMP or CHIPS, which turned out to be award-winning groaner-clever. Well done, Mr. Leach.
BOREDTOtears before ...TODEATH, but easily fixed. And everything else was the whoosh-whoosh variety of easy, and clever, and a lot of fun to solve. Looked at DELTACO for the longest time (say it DEL-tuh-ko), wondering where there was a fast food joint named that--somewhere in Iceland, maybe? (We don't have DEL TACOs where I live.)
That comic cover of "Jane Eyre" in Rex's column is absolutely hilarious! Jane's been working out and has had her hair DYED. She could be played more by Lucy Lawless than Susannah York. The only comics I was allowed to read as a child (Yes, there is that much dust on me!) were of the Little Lulu, Nancy, and Archie variety. Looking at this cover, I almost understand what my parents were so afraid of.
Rex -- perhaps you can tell us if BK's post at 7:27 is the first time a sitting Supreme Court Justice has commented on your blog. (Burp!)
HEADDESK made me think of "dope slap," which reminded me of a call made to Tom and Ray on Car Talk years ago. A woman called in and described a problem she was having with her car.
Caller: My husband thinks this is the problem: [. . . ], but I think he's wrong and this is the problem [. . . ]. So what is it, guys? -- is my husband wrong, or do I deserve one big dope slap?
I got completely stuck at 1A/2D. I thought it might be British slang for joking, which would make it HUMOUR, with a cute HUMOR / HUMOUR cross. That would make the rock climbing grip a CHIMP, which seemed completely plausible. Oops.
I loved “flower shower” for VASE. I don’t know why, I guess because I assumed it was the type of shower that rhymes with flower and that didn’t bring anything to mind? Except maybe a wedding procession. Anyhoo, so fun to find it was a shower with a long O. I had SOOTHE before solace and could not get RUMOUR until the very end, but then I thought it was very cute.
Went from NSFW to WED to IMPRISONED and didn't really slow down until the grammatically puzzling HEADDESK. which had to be right. Glad to see it was new to some other folks too.
This Taylor Swift person seems to be pretty famous. Have to find out something about her. Speaking of famous singers, I didn't know DENIECE Williams either. I think I'm more familiar with her brother, DENEPHEW.
Only other snags/unknowns were Ms. SUI and considering LINEDANCE before POLEDANCE, which makes me think I still retain some fragments of innocence. Also fun to learn "zythophile", but I and several of my closest friends will always be "beer lovers". That's it, that's the list.
Really nice zippy Saturday, SL Should've Lasted longer is my only complaint. Keep 'em coming, and thanks for all the fun.
Smooth sailing once I too left the NW and sought other passages to get back there — delightful puzzle 👍👍 Had thought the only British part of ‘spill the tea’ was the added U in RUMOUR, but just found a BBC usage here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/features/the-english-we-speak/ep-200608
Amy: very zippy. Like Rex, skipped the NW at the start but then went to the SE. Saw the long across Arcade clue and grimaced, as know nothing about games. The downs began falling into place and was able to get PLAYER ONE. Confidence thus boosted, breezed through the rest. Lots of fun!
Fun puzzle. CHIPS was the only answer I had in the NW (and alludES for IMPLIES, but I didn’t like it and took it out fairly quickly). NSFW was the one that got it started for me. I instantly got three of the four downs, which got me to EYRE, which got me the fourth down (SYNC), and it was off to the races.
The buff dark-haired woman that you think is Jane Eyre is actually Rochester's crazy wife who has been kept locked up for years. And I believe that she is revealed on the day that Jane Eyre is supposed to marry Rochester.
I had PRIDE mARChES and BORED TO tEArs which held me up, and the ENBIES/DENIECE cross was essentially a Natick for me, but ENBIES just sounded right even though I didn’t know it. Top left corner was also a killer for me. I disagree with Rex’s claim that this is not generationally-slanted, but I still liked it a lot.
The clue/answer to 39A would make a great SATS Word Analogy question:
FACE:PALM = HEAD:[blank?] Answer: DESK. That is to say, you thrust your head into the desk with the same frustration that you thrust your face into your palm. (I learned both expressions -- expressions that omit the word "into", btw -- from crosswords; of that I'm quite sure.
Love the clue for HUMOR.
CAr FARE/ENrIES instead of CAB FARE/ENBIES gave me a one-letter DNF which I never saw coming. As a New Yorker, I should have immediately thought of CAB FARE, but I didn't. I was too fixated on the unknown-to-me name DENIECE which I guessed right, but which could have been DELIECE or DERIECE or pretty much anything. I thought of the differently spelled DENISE, though, and guessed right. At any rate, my focus was entirely on whether the "N" of DENIECE would be right, not on whether the "R" of CAR would be right.
Thought for the day: Count your lucky stars if you're only "eccentric" and not completely BATTY. They're really not synonyms.
I found this consistently engrossing, thought-provoking, and a lot of fun to solve. Or in my case, almost solve.
Anonymous: How so? I wondered if feet meant something in poetry that I don't know about. I briefly considered the Saab Sonnet of the seventies, but that had four tires, not seventy feet, so unless there is another meaning to sonnet, you are my only hope (which I recall being a clue in a recent puzzle).
What a dynamite debut! And by a constructor on the younger side if the photo on xwordinfo is current. In any case, nice job Spencer! And I hope to see you back again soon.
Really some outstanding cluing today. My favorites were PRIDE PARADE, CHEM LAB and SIMON SAYS. I learned about ENBY/ENBIES which puzzled me at first, then made me smile when I realized it’s simply a phonetic pronunciation. And “zythophile.” Who woulda thought? Sounds like someone who would know how to build a BEERamid.
I’m off for a road trip in my IMPALA the next few days. Wishing a very happy Mother’s Day to all who celebrate.
Easy? I play the xword of the NYT on my iPad which flashes at the end “Congratulations! You just did this puzzle in a jillion minutes above your average.” I never turn the timer off. I will close the cover sometimes but if I go to the kitchen and get a drink or to the bathroom or talk to my wife, etc, , I leave it on. This one read 1 hour 55 minutes. It was difficult for me because of the lower left quadrant. Never heard of HEADDESK, ENBIES, DENIECE or what a - phile a beer lover is. . Yet, overall this was a good challenge. The only thing I found meaningless was ARTCENTER. Sorta reminded me of yesterday’s SPINSERVE . Put Jane for the orphan and crossed it with pair. I thought I had done something brilliantly!
Thanks to the constructor for raising my average completion time.
Hmmm what am I missing? This puzzle was way to easy and filled in like a Tuesday or Wednesday for me (albeit with some longer answers), and I thought the fill was mostly average. I don’t rush through puzzles, especially on the weekend where I prefer the puzzle to take 25 minutes or more, to give me something to enjoy. Barely took 12 minutes today. And that involved having to try a few different letters in both “RUMOUR” and “ENBIES” in order to get the right combo.
Exceedingly rare when a Saturday puzzle is fun to me, but this one was, probably because there's only a few names and most of the answers took the right amount of work. Plenty of great answers. Great day.
Uniclues:
1 Butt-to-bunk sound in the clink. 2 Reputation of one gah-gah to get guys gaga while grinding to Gaga. 3 Is an excellent Number Two. 4 Free faller in flight. 5 Hope from front line workers the new uniforms aren't blue. 6 Fourteen lines of lies (or truth).
1 IMPRISONED PLOP 2 POLE DANCE BATTY 3 MIFFS PLAYER ONE 4 LEAF DROPS A HINT 5 NEONS, EMTS PRAY 6 I GOTCHA SONNET
Rex opined that the constructor was most likely 'young'. Take a peek ay XWORD INFO and you will see that: yes, it is a debut...and Spencer appears to be barely pushing 14. Regardless of his true age, his debut is very well received and he hopefully will be constructing into the 2090's.
Hey All ! Well, dang. Had CRIMP in at 1A, but changed it to ChIMP, figuring that sounded more "fingertip-like" as a climbing terminology. That got me hUMOUR for RUMOUR. That worked for me, but not for correctly solving the puz.
What in tarhooties is HEAD DESK? Had HEADslap there forever, until had to concede that it might be something else. STOCK took me ole brain waaay to long to see
A bit tough-ish in spots, but still a fairly quick SatPuz solve over here.
Need to get my SPACETIME PROMO CODE at the ART CENTER.
DELTACO - DELTA, I GOTCHA.
Crazy brain tricks again, had eMPRISONED, then InPRISONED, before getting it right. freeDANCE-POLEDANCE was a Har.
There are no words in the English Language that start with SR. Unsure what language SRIRACHA is. There is SRI, but not English. Or am I being ignorant on that? (Chances are good...)
Thanks for not getting BORED TO DEATH reading my inanity. (Har, Auto-correct wants to change that to insanity. Works either way, I guess.)
LOL. I now find out that ENBIES was in Will Nediger's and my most recent puzzle. It does come back to me now, sort of. I think I remember querying him about it when he first sent me the finished grid. "What on earth?" I may have said. But never using the term myself and never hearing anyone I know use it, and never reading it in any publication either, I promptly forgot it. I'm really good at forgetting stuff that pops into my life momentarily and then pops right out again.
The Count was never imprisoned- Dantes was, and only became “nobility” after finding the treasure. I therefore discounted (;)) this answer until it was forced on me. -Shuka
Finished it with a few cheats...didn't know HEADDESK (???) or ENBIES (I had "Emilys"), and I had GAYPRIDEDAYS instead of PRIDEPARADES. I guessed right on DENIECE Williams, fortunately, or I never would have finished it.
This was two puzzles to me. The right side was fairly easy, the left side very hard.
@SouthsideJohnny 6:50 AM If you start with Taco Bell, and then take out the joy, and add in a horror show, and surgically extract any hint of hope, you get Del Taco. One of my friends loves it.
Call me more of a oenophile, but certainly Zytho-tolerant. I’d definitely go the zytho route with my DELTACO Crunchtada.
I think we’d all be better off if the Musk fella would climb into one of his rockets and do about a hundred years of SPACETIME.
IMPRISONED, BEER and CHEMLABS made this play somewhat like a @JohnX tribute puzzle. I have an abiding faith that he’ll pop back up one day and matter of factly account for his long absence.
Pretty crazy that @Nancy DNFed on an answer that she herself debuted (ENBIES)
Wonderful debut puzzle, though easy peasy for a Saturday. Thanks, Spencer Leach.
Easy. It would have been easier if I hadn’t had problems with spelling ENBIES. I’ve seen it a couple different ways in puzzles and didn’t not pick the one this puzzle wanted initially. Also me too for BORED TO tEArs before DEATH which didn’t help.
Smooth grid with plenty of good stuff, liked it a bunch! A fine debut!
I echo all kudos about this puzzle! So much to like and so many clever misdirects! Is BOREDTOtears/DEATH a kea loa? Yep, had tears at first but I probably actually say BOREDTODEATH more often. I also plopped in IMPRISONED and SUI but then really struggled with the rest of the NW, and cried out D’OH when I figured out CHIPS which helped me finally realize RUMOUR was the modern kind of “tea.” Wicked fun!
Ya know, I’m pretty sure SAT scores were NOT on my H.S. transcript but MAYBE they are now? That would’ve been SO nice when doing college applications because you not only had to send your high school transcript but also arrange to have the SAT score sent. (At least I THINK it was that way…and of course…no computers, everything by mail)
CHIPS to PRIDEPARADES to IMPRISONED, NEONS, IMPALA- I almost couldn’t type fast enough. But then I got to HEADDESK and had no idea whatsoever. Needed nearly all the crosses for DENIECE too. So, confidence shaken, I encountered the evil “Flower shower” crossing “Leave in the dust” which for some reason went right over my head.
Liked SIMONSAYS, PROMOCODE, the clue for STOCK. Not being a video gamer I was pleased to get PLAYERONE from PRAY and the party was over. Alas!
I’m certain I’m not alone in applauding the diligent avoidance of using obscure names of celebrities, especially those from nations with names having odd spelling, as filler. Sick of that.
I was surprised to know DELTACO. We don't have any here in San Francisco. I suppose because of all of our excellent independent burrito joints. A local food critic claims that the burrito is the most popular fast food here. We do have a handful of Taco Bells, though.
I had PROMENADE before PROMO CODE because maybe the hotel desk you're checking out of would be at the end of a promenade? It seemed logical at the time.
This one felt more like "medium" to me, as I was repeatedly stymied by unknowns in the NW, NE, and SW: I didn't know CRIMP, DEL TACO, DENIECE, or HEAD DESK, and I didn't "know" the terrifically clued RUMOUR until the I got HUMOR (apt in the wit of the cluing and cute -OR v -OUR contrast). So, I whooshed in fits and starts. My favorite entry was SIMON SAYS, and I liked how it paralleled SAT SCORES, evoking for me the span from the grade school playground to the end of high school, nicely linked by the SPACE TIME continuum.
Do-overs: fore before NSFW, BEEs before BEER :) Help from previous puzzles: ENBIES.
@Conrad 6:14 - I think we're the only ones so far who hit the golf course "links" instead of heading to the Internet. It's funny how often I find I've gone astray on the same path as you :)
The back story of ENBIES appearing in Will's and my puzzle. Or a rare glimpse at how the sausage gets made. Here, meticulously preserved for posterity, is a snippet from my email to Will N when I saw the finished grid for that particular puzzle:
"There are a few things that furrowed my brow like ENBIES and OBVI (no idea whatever!), but I'm not going to worry my pretty little head about them. I'll let you clue them of course, and beg you, whatever on earth they are, to clue them as kindly and gently as possible. I always think that the in-the-language fill should be clued as deviously as possible and the arcane, unfamiliar fill should be clued as easily and slam-dunk-ily as possible."
Best, Nancy
So if I didn't remember ENBIES today, my less than hands-on approach to it back then probably explains it:)
To the sonnet queriers: Sonnets have fourteen lines, each one five feet long, so to speak. I was going to quibble about "most" vs "all" sonnets but I expect there are many exceptions and I'd be out of my depth to do so.
Thot I might be in for big trouble, getting bubkes in the NW, but the upper Mid-west came to the rescue, and rest is history.
Scariest cross: ENBIES / DENIECE, altho, ENBy/IES seemed to resonate. I see we've had one or both fairly recently.
Fun solve! :) ___ Now beating a HASTY retreat to Matthew Sewell's Sat. Stumper. 🤞 ___ Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness & Freudenfreude to all 🙏
I thought I was going to have to cheat; I was stuck at the SUI/RUMOUR crossing. But somehow SUI bubbled up in my mid, and I realized that HUMOR could be sidsected as well as HonOR (I had IMPLIES but misread my lettering), and I was done. But I needed to come here to understand it, because I wasn't thinking of that kind of tea in the British context. I thought maybe the "bit" was so small that you might say it was 'merely a rumour of tea.'
I did better with ENBIRS, though it took me a few moments to say it out loud in my mind, and it could have been DEmIECE for all I knew.
Unlike Rex, I don't particularly long for puzzles that whoosh, but this one was a lot of fun.
@Nat, I think you're probably pulling our leg, or sending us up, or something, but just in case you're sincere a sonnet is a poem with 14 lines of pentameter. I'll leave the translating and the math to you. I'd never compare you to a summer's day, though.
@Roo, it you're still wondering what language SRIRACHA is in, read the clue again. I want to point out that several years ago I predicted it would work its way into the grid.
@Nancy(10:31) “I'm really good at forgetting stuff that pops into my life momentarily and then pops right out again.“ I was wondering why I didn’t remember it either but that explains it precisely.
Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday were apparently on the easy to very easy side for many... not for me. (granted, on Friday it was just because I hit a brick wall in the SW, but the rest of the grid filled in quickly)
Today, though... Wednesdayish time, even faster than this week's Wednesday (no weird stuff like NEHI or VUE to slow me down). I only really had trouble trying to figure out what came before DESK, and DENIECE was unknown, but thankfully I knew ENBIES.
SouthsideJohnny @6:50 - (maybe take my words with a grain of salt, I study math, not physics) SPACETIME is definitely 4-dimensional, it just has an unusual notion of "length" so to speak. The math checks out but only if you DON'T measure length like you would in standard 3D space. For instance, two points in space-time can have a negative amount of "length" between them (?!?) which just means that they can't directly affect each other, because that would require moving faster than the speed of light.
Definitely not Saturday-level, but OAR with the Mondayest of Monday clues? Come on.
“Leave in the dust” = LOSE (49D)? If I leave you in the dust, I lose? If I’m left in the dust, do I win? If this is in some context besides racing, what am I missing? Hep me, please (asking for Joe Bleaux, btw).
Note to both @Will and @Joel - a "Share" is "a little bit of company". Stock is "all the shares" by which ownership is divided. We've now had this error in both the mini and the full puzzle this week.
This puzzle really Satted, to use our jargon for how a puzzle fits the day of the week. Got it all, but only after a long struggle. Nice quote from my favorite author, E.B. White. Biggest surprise: PLAYER ONE. Used to play a lot of pinball, but a long time ago now.
I was delighted to see the reference to the Count of Monte Cristo. Brought back a memory of a long ago February, when I read the French version of the novel, while my oldest daughter read the English version, and we would compare notes about the plot. I am amazed to this day that our local public library actually had the French version on its shelves.
I really like seeing common mistakes on this blog - makes me feel better for CHIMP/HUMOUR. Close to my Saturday average because of guesses for HEADDESK, DELTACO, BETTY, and SUI.
RP here. Lines of poetry are made of feet, which are little rhythmic units. Iambic pentameter = 5 iambs per line, for instance. Most sonnets in English have five feet per line and all sonnets have 14 lines, so, yes, 14x5 = 70 (syllables are not the relevant unit here)
I thought this would be a typical Saturday struggle, as I started in the NW and was getting nowhere. Then I was surprised how quickly I was able to start filling in other parts of the grid. I thought HEADDESK had to be wrong, but saw no issue with the crossers, so I shrugged and moved on. I can never remember how to spell SRIRACHA (for a while I just had the SR), so the NE went in a little slower than it otherwise would have. Finished where I started, in the NW, which I thought was the hardest section.
Definitely an easy Saturday today. My two hold-ups were spelling 43A ENBeES and being BORED TO tEArs. Why does facepalm seem a legitimate verb but HEADDESK feels like it needs some connecting words in the middle?
May I start by saying that I want every Saturday to be like this. Yes I do. There were a few whooshes for me and so I knew @Rex might rate this as easy. It took me several hours. I pulled hair from my brain, I took the pups for a walk...put on my big girl pants and plugged away.. Joy to my world. So many things I didn't know. CRIMP? NSFW? And then, HUMOR at 3D's little bit of tea. I asked my British husband for that answer. He didn't know it....Well, neither did I. I left the north and concentrated on the middle. SRIRACHA? How to spell it.... Run to the fridge, get my bottle out and check for spelling. Done. Answers came in slow flows and when they did, I was delighted with myself. Back up to the north and entered PRIDE PARADE and SAT SCORES. How about that? Check to see if they are correct. They are..so happy with myself. Getting you two along with IMPRISONED opened up a small flood gate. The top NW was still a little empty so I moved back to the ART CENTER. Good...SPACE TIME and PROMO CODE in you go because I knew SIMON SAYS. This is how you do it. Inch by inch...You're getting there! I get to the lowermost west side. What's an expression stronger than a facepalm? I don't know. I should know. I had DESK but what to put in front of it? You see, I had mileage instead of CAB FARE. Cheat. Damn, I don't want to. Ah...CAB FARE!. So what is a HEAD DESK? Never heard of it. I looked you up and saw a picture of a man banging his head on a desk. I've never done that. Then ENBIES had me. I knew what it should be but I couldn't remember if we ever danced together. Look it up to make sure you're correct. You are. Move to the east. Is it really PLAYER ONE? I guessed right. Guess after guess. Fun. Especially when you are right. Back upstairs and staring at 1A. Who uses fingertips only while rock climbing? You end in P, that's all I know. Frustration and a cheat gave me CRIMP and NSFW...Those two cheats saved my bacon. I loved having to really think hard and hope my answers were correct. This puzzle did that for me. Now to read all of the comments and hope that a bazillion of you didn't say that this was the easiest Saturday they've ever done. I'll take more of these, Spencer. Oh, are you a Brit perhaps?
I incorrectly saw the clue for 11D DEL TACO as reading "Fast food chain whose name becomes another company when its first two letters are removed" so I was wondering what the heck L TACO is. Didn't see my mistake until coming here. It didn't rate a facepalm or HEADDESK but it definitely was a "D'oh!" moment.
Nice to know I've been a lifelong "zythophile" (58A). Now I have a more sophisticated sounding term for the mundane "beer lover". (Kind of like using the Latin rebus as a more sophisticated sounding term for an xword puzzle with the mundane gimmick of having multiple letters in a single square.)
I think that many high school grads would benefit from taking multiple GAP YEARs (13D) before going to college. Perhaps getting kicked around some by being in the real world would give them a more appreciative, seriousness of purpose approach to being in college. A hitch in the Navy and three years working in industry between high school and going on to college did that for me.
@Beezer 3:57. Sometimes the fridge is my best friend......!!!!!! @pablito and @R. Duke. Call my simple but both of you made me laugh out loud. DENEPHEW.....What I'm worried about is that the next time soul singer Williams comes out she won't be DE NIECE!. @Nancy...Do you think I will ever forget ENBIES now? :-)
You study math: the concept of "negative length" seems oxymoronic to me? Is length different from distance? 'Coz I thought one of the definitional properties of a distance is D >= 0. So I'm intrigued, are the physicists taking liberties with mathematics again? Or am I out of date? (well that last question is easy...)
Another one of those “when it was easy . . . “ days for me. Loved the cleverness, but was absolutely stumped on some things - until I wasn’t. A perfect Saturday. Took tenacity and rewarded me for the effort.
Yeah. Of course The College Board says that. They’re the ones who administer the SAT in a time that schools are moving away from the exam entirely. Just bc The College Board says that, doesn’t make it true.
Enjoyed it, but strangely got stuck on VASE (Flower shower). Had no idea what it wanted, even when I had ASE. When it finally clicked, I had a bit of annoyance instead of the joy I wanted. Oh well, I can read the clue now and get it.
Nobody has ever said: I have to go to chemistry laboratory now. It was, it is, and it always will be: chem lab. It's everyday vernacular. No hints needed! Plus, it's Saturday, no handholding allowed!
A long time ago, I was solving this puzzle and got stuck at an unguessable (to me) crossing: N. C. WYETH crossing NATICK at the "N"—I knew WYETH but forgot his initials, and NATICK ... is a suburb of Boston that I had no hope of knowing. It was clued as someplace the Boston Marathon runs through (???). Anyway, NATICK— the more obscure name in that crossing—became shorthand for an unguessable cross, esp. where the cross involves two proper nouns, neither of which is exceedingly well known. NATICK took hold as crossword slang, and the term can now be both noun ("I had a NATICK in the SW corner...") or verb ("I got NATICKED by 50A / 34D!")
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102 comments:
Like OFL, I wanted cUppa(something) for the bit of tea at 2D
Read "links" instead of "link" in the 6A clue so thought fore instead of NSFW
huGe before MEGA at 16A
@Rex BORED TO tEArs before DEATH at 21D
No clue how to spell the first part SRIRACHA (27A)
Share before STOCK at 27D
The 34D clue should have included "for short" or "(abbr.)" because it's short for CHEMistry LABoratory
Last letter entered was the E at 39Ax35D, because it kinda had to be HEAD DESK x DENIECE, but I'd never heard of either. The happy music came as a surprise.
Like Rex, I liked this a lot. And I must add that I especially agree with this comment: “Do your thing, remember there are huge swaths of the solving world who are nothing like you, invite them to your party too, and bam, you got yourself a good time.” I’ll recall that the next time Rex slams a puzzle that others enjoy.
The north was the tougher section with CRIMP and the British slang (which was gettable, but I just missed it - and a much smaller margin for error with tougher Saturday crosses). Wondering if DEL TACO is a regional thing - if so, do they make good burritos?
HEADDESK as a verb was totally new to me, but I’m guessing it’s been around for years and I’m just so out of touch that I’ve never heard of it (I did drop NSFW right in with no crosses though, so there is a glimmer of hope for me. However I only know Jane EYRE and the rest of the Brontë babes from CrossWorld though).
I wonder if the astrophysicists in the crowd will quibble over SPACE TIME being characterized as “four-dimensional”. I don’t have a dog in the hunt, and probably can’t even articulate it properly, but apparently there is some disagreement as to whether TIME is actually considered a dimension. Apparently the math breaks down or something like that. Definitely close enough for CrossWorld in my view, but others more knowledgeable than me may disagree.
This puzzle was playful and clever with a bit of bite, just the way I like it.
As an ENBy member of the commentariat, gentle and loving reminder that anything folks post about they/them pronouns or non-binary trans people will be read by at least one and probably more than a few of us. It’s hard enough out there already for trans folks, so please be kind. 💕
Especially given that context, I was delighted to see ENBIES included, probably a debut yeah? When @Lewis is back on Monday I humbly request he let us know how many debuts today featured.
I found this puzzle delightfully fresh and I agree with Rex that it felt like it brought people from all generations along with fair crossing. An exception that I was worried about is whether DENIECE would be fairly crossed for all solvers. And @Conrad has already confirmed that it wasn’t, exactly. Also had the same thought that the cluing for CHEM LAB should have indicated abbreviation.
Do SATSCORES appear on transcripts? Back in my day they would be sent independently by the testing company to the college.
I loved so many clue-answer pairs that if I tried to list them all this post would be even longer than usual. But POLEDANCE was a fave for the cleverness and mild risqué factor, and SPACETIME was fun for the nerd points.
All in all, thank you Spencer for a fabulous, fun, and breezy start to the weekend.
All time fastest Saturday for me even though I was nodding off. The puzzle was a gas, so I fought to maintain consciousness. Looking forward to more from this constructor.
Yesterday was one of the easiest Fridays ever and today’s was done in record time for a Saturday with nary a glitch That’s fine, I suppose, but I’m generally expecting Fri/Sat to be more challenging (and more of a blow to my ego).
The super-easy ride a lot of people got yesterday (not me, though), I got today.
A few hiccups – huLADANCE, I GeTCHA, BOREDTOtEArs, CArFARE – all fixed quickly.
I drank beer with my friends.
We drank beer, my friends and I, boys and girls.
Sometimes I had probably had too many beers. Sometimes other people had too many beers.
I liked beer. I still like beer.
I like beer. I don't know if you do. Do you like beer? Or not? What do you like to drink?
Hanging out and having beer with friends - which I gladly do and fully embrace.
Proudly a zythophile since 1982!
Pretty whoosh-whoosh, zoom-zoom for
me too, except the NW, where I stalled at the beginning and again at the end. I loved the clues for RUMOURS and POLE DANCE but they definitely fooled me. I thought I had outsmarted “do some spinning at a club” because I was supposed to think of spinning classes at a gym, but I was sure it was some kind of DJ. I loved that aha.
Still harder than yesterday for me.
I got Naticked in the NW. Being unfamiliar with both English slang and rock-climbing, I had "chimp" for the grip and "humour" for bit of tea, and both words looked like they could fit. Alas.
@Weezie: seven debuts today. IMPRISONED, PROMOCODE, DROPSAHINT, DENEICE, BOREDTODEATH, SATSCORES, PRIDEPARADES.
Now, a lot of those are what I call 'false debuts'. For example, PRIDEPARADE has appeared six times; this just the first time it has appeared in plural. Similarly, SATSCORE has appeared five times; IMPRISON, IMPRISONS AND IMPRISONMENT have all appeared. PROMOCODES has appeared.
DENEICE, DROPSAHINT and BOREDTODEATH are, as far as I can tell, true debuts.
ENBIES has appeared before, in a puzzle by our own Nancy (with Will Nediger) last year, and ENBY has also appeared twice.
Undesirable sound at a stone skipping contest: OUCH
@Weezie - from Xwordinfo:
This puzzle has 7 unique answer words.
BOREDTODEATH DENIECE DROPSAHINT IMPRISONED PRIDEPARADES PROMOCODE SATSCORES
A mostly breezy and enjoyable ride...except for the NW corner, which completely did me in. As with Rex's puzzle, Anna SUI was alone there for the longest time, and after getting RUMOUR (clever!), MORE, and PRIDE PARADE, I still didn't know CRIMP or CHIPS, which turned out to be award-winning groaner-clever. Well done, Mr. Leach.
BOREDTOtears before ...TODEATH, but easily fixed. And everything else was the whoosh-whoosh variety of easy, and clever, and a lot of fun to solve. Looked at DELTACO for the longest time (say it DEL-tuh-ko), wondering where there was a fast food joint named that--somewhere in Iceland, maybe? (We don't have DEL TACOs where I live.)
That comic cover of "Jane Eyre" in Rex's column is absolutely hilarious! Jane's been working out and has had her hair DYED. She could be played more by Lucy Lawless than Susannah York. The only comics I was allowed to read as a child (Yes, there is that much dust on me!) were of the Little Lulu, Nancy, and Archie variety. Looking at this cover, I almost understand what my parents were so afraid of.
Echo Weezie: I never heard of SAT scores being on HS transcripts, so wouldn't put it in
Thank you! And delighted to be wrong about ENBIES - good on you, @Nancy and Will!
Rex -- perhaps you can tell us if BK's post at 7:27 is the first time a sitting Supreme Court Justice has commented on your blog. (Burp!)
HEADDESK made me think of "dope slap," which reminded me of a call made to Tom and Ray on Car Talk years ago. A woman called in and described a problem she was having with her car.
Caller: My husband thinks this is the problem: [. . . ], but I think he's wrong and this is the problem [. . . ]. So what is it, guys? -- is my husband wrong, or do I deserve one big dope slap?
Tom and Ray: Brace yourself.
I got completely stuck at 1A/2D. I thought it might be British slang for joking, which would make it HUMOUR, with a cute HUMOR / HUMOUR cross. That would make the rock climbing grip a CHIMP, which seemed completely plausible. Oops.
SAT SCORES don’t appear on your high school transcript
I loved “flower shower” for VASE. I don’t know why, I guess because I assumed it was the type of shower that rhymes with flower and that didn’t bring anything to mind? Except maybe a wedding procession. Anyhoo, so fun to find it was a shower with a long O. I had SOOTHE before solace and could not get RUMOUR until the very end, but then I thought it was very cute.
IMPALA! Only word I got in the first pass. Hoo boy!
Lots of answers I had no clue about - HEADDESK, DENIECE, SUI, ENBIES (sorry, @weezie - seen it before, just couldn’t remember).
But this slowly came together - the Tears/DEATH mistake cost me some time - in the way a satisfying Saturday should.
Best misdirection of the day - SIMONSAYS.
Also BK’s Ode to Beer @7:27 was this morning’s Supreme Comment, really doing Justice to Zythophilia!
Great debut, Spencer Leach!
Went from NSFW to WED to IMPRISONED and didn't really slow down until the grammatically puzzling HEADDESK. which had to be right. Glad to see it was new to some other folks too.
This Taylor Swift person seems to be pretty famous. Have to find out something about her. Speaking of famous singers, I didn't know DENIECE Williams either. I think I'm more familiar with her brother, DENEPHEW.
Only other snags/unknowns were Ms. SUI and considering LINEDANCE before POLEDANCE, which makes me think I still retain some fragments of innocence. Also fun to learn "zythophile", but I and several of my closest friends will always be "beer lovers". That's it, that's the list.
Really nice zippy Saturday, SL Should've Lasted longer is my only complaint. Keep 'em coming, and thanks for all the fun.
This was my puzzle!! Waking up to a glowing review from rex made my day!
Smooth sailing once I too left the NW and sought other passages to get back there — delightful puzzle 👍👍
Had thought the only British part of ‘spill the tea’ was the added U in RUMOUR, but just found a BBC usage here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/features/the-english-we-speak/ep-200608
Two easy days in a row.
Amy: very zippy. Like Rex, skipped the NW at the start but then went to the SE. Saw the long across Arcade clue and grimaced, as know nothing about games. The downs began falling into place and was able to get PLAYER ONE. Confidence thus boosted, breezed through the rest. Lots of fun!
Probably just my birth-order-influenced personality but Rex brings so much more joy to my Saturday morning when he likes the solve.
Fun puzzle. CHIPS was the only answer I had in the NW (and alludES for IMPLIES, but I didn’t like it and took it out fairly quickly). NSFW was the one that got it started for me. I instantly got three of the four downs, which got me to EYRE, which got me the fourth down (SYNC), and it was off to the races.
Absolutely loved the clue for RUMOUR.
Does a SONNET have seventy feet?
Shout out to the clue “Flower shower,” which I read as though they rhymed, like a shower in your bathroom. Intentional trap that got me at first!!!!
I think I’m getting better at Saturday puzzles. I completed two in a row! (I know it’s easy, just let me enjoy my moment!)
That's two days in a row that I had no idea about 1A. Stop the madness!
The buff dark-haired woman that you think is Jane Eyre is actually Rochester's crazy wife who has been kept locked up for years. And I believe that she is revealed on the day that Jane Eyre is supposed to marry Rochester.
I had PRIDE mARChES and BORED TO tEArs which held me up, and the ENBIES/DENIECE cross was essentially a Natick for me, but ENBIES just sounded right even though I didn’t know it. Top left corner was also a killer for me. I disagree with Rex’s claim that this is not generationally-slanted, but I still liked it a lot.
English professor here: yes
I had the same thought about the SAT scores! They aren’t on transcripts
Naticked at CArFARE/ENrIES (ENrIES seems every bit as reasonable as ENBIES). Nasty little cross there
The clue/answer to 39A would make a great SATS Word Analogy question:
FACE:PALM = HEAD:[blank?] Answer: DESK. That is to say, you thrust your head into the desk with the same frustration that you thrust your face into your palm. (I learned both expressions -- expressions that omit the word "into", btw -- from crosswords; of that I'm quite sure.
Love the clue for HUMOR.
CAr FARE/ENrIES instead of CAB FARE/ENBIES gave me a one-letter DNF which I never saw coming. As a New Yorker, I should have immediately thought of CAB FARE, but I didn't. I was too fixated on the unknown-to-me name DENIECE which I guessed right, but which could have been DELIECE or DERIECE or pretty much anything. I thought of the differently spelled DENISE, though, and guessed right. At any rate, my focus was entirely on whether the "N" of DENIECE would be right, not on whether the "R" of CAR would be right.
Thought for the day: Count your lucky stars if you're only "eccentric" and not completely BATTY. They're really not synonyms.
I found this consistently engrossing, thought-provoking, and a lot of fun to solve. Or in my case, almost solve.
Anonymous: How so? I wondered if feet meant something in poetry that I don't know about.
I briefly considered the Saab Sonnet of the seventies, but that had four tires, not seventy feet, so unless there is another meaning to sonnet, you are my only hope (which I recall being a clue in a recent puzzle).
What a dynamite debut! And by a constructor on the younger side if the photo on xwordinfo is current. In any case, nice job Spencer! And I hope to see you back again soon.
Really some outstanding cluing today. My favorites were PRIDE PARADE, CHEM LAB and SIMON SAYS. I learned about ENBY/ENBIES which puzzled me at first, then made me smile when I realized it’s simply a phonetic pronunciation. And “zythophile.” Who woulda thought? Sounds like someone who would know how to build a BEERamid.
I’m off for a road trip in my IMPALA the next few days. Wishing a very happy Mother’s Day to all who celebrate.
Easy? I play the xword of the NYT on my iPad which flashes at the end “Congratulations! You just did this puzzle in a jillion minutes above your average.” I never turn the timer off. I will close the cover sometimes but if I go to the kitchen and get a drink or to the bathroom or talk to my wife, etc, , I leave it on. This one read 1 hour 55 minutes. It was difficult for me because of the lower left quadrant. Never heard of HEADDESK, ENBIES, DENIECE or what a - phile a beer lover is. . Yet, overall this was a good challenge. The only thing I found meaningless was ARTCENTER. Sorta reminded me of yesterday’s SPINSERVE .
Put Jane for the orphan and crossed it with pair. I thought I had done something brilliantly!
Thanks to the constructor for raising my average completion time.
HostaPHILE here. Wonderful time of year for us.
Hmmm what am I missing? This puzzle was way to easy and filled in like a Tuesday or Wednesday for me (albeit with some longer answers), and I thought the fill was mostly average. I don’t rush through puzzles, especially on the weekend where I prefer the puzzle to take 25 minutes or more, to give me something to enjoy. Barely took 12 minutes today. And that involved having to try a few different letters in both “RUMOUR” and “ENBIES” in order to get the right combo.
Exceedingly rare when a Saturday puzzle is fun to me, but this one was, probably because there's only a few names and most of the answers took the right amount of work. Plenty of great answers. Great day.
Uniclues:
1 Butt-to-bunk sound in the clink.
2 Reputation of one gah-gah to get guys gaga while grinding to Gaga.
3 Is an excellent Number Two.
4 Free faller in flight.
5 Hope from front line workers the new uniforms aren't blue.
6 Fourteen lines of lies (or truth).
1 IMPRISONED PLOP
2 POLE DANCE BATTY
3 MIFFS PLAYER ONE
4 LEAF DROPS A HINT
5 NEONS, EMTS PRAY
6 I GOTCHA SONNET
Rex opined that the constructor was most likely 'young'. Take a peek ay XWORD INFO and you will see that: yes, it is a debut...and Spencer appears to be barely pushing 14. Regardless of his true age, his debut is very well received and he hopefully will be constructing into the 2090's.
Well done 'young' man.
Hey All !
Well, dang. Had CRIMP in at 1A, but changed it to ChIMP, figuring that sounded more "fingertip-like" as a climbing terminology. That got me hUMOUR for RUMOUR. That worked for me, but not for correctly solving the puz.
What in tarhooties is HEAD DESK? Had HEADslap there forever, until had to concede that it might be something else. STOCK took me ole brain waaay to long to see
A bit tough-ish in spots, but still a fairly quick SatPuz solve over here.
Need to get my SPACETIME PROMO CODE at the ART CENTER.
DELTACO - DELTA, I GOTCHA.
Crazy brain tricks again, had eMPRISONED, then InPRISONED, before getting it right. freeDANCE-POLEDANCE was a Har.
There are no words in the English Language that start with SR. Unsure what language SRIRACHA is. There is SRI, but not English. Or am I being ignorant on that? (Chances are good...)
Thanks for not getting BORED TO DEATH reading my inanity. (Har, Auto-correct wants to change that to insanity. Works either way, I guess.)
Four F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
Bravo!
LOL. I now find out that ENBIES was in Will Nediger's and my most recent puzzle. It does come back to me now, sort of. I think I remember querying him about it when he first sent me the finished grid. "What on earth?" I may have said. But never using the term myself and never hearing anyone I know use it, and never reading it in any publication either, I promptly forgot it. I'm really good at forgetting stuff that pops into my life momentarily and then pops right out again.
The Count was never imprisoned- Dantes was, and only became “nobility” after finding the treasure. I therefore discounted (;)) this answer until it was forced on me. -Shuka
Finished it with a few cheats...didn't know HEADDESK (???) or ENBIES (I had "Emilys"), and I had GAYPRIDEDAYS instead of PRIDEPARADES. I guessed right on DENIECE Williams, fortunately, or I never would have finished it.
This was two puzzles to me. The right side was fairly easy, the left side very hard.
I liked this fine but for me I utterly shattered my Saturday record time. Definitely played like a Friday, or even Wednesday level difficulty.
A woman is in labor. She gives birth to twins, a boy and a girl, and passes out.
When she comes to, the doctor comes in and says, “Your babies are healthy, and, good news, your brother named them!”
The woman says, “Oh no, my brother’s not the brightest bulb in the chandelier. But give it to me straight, Doctor, what did he name my baby girl?”
The doctor says, “DENIECE”
The woman says, “Oh, that’s not bad. And the boy?”
“Denephew.”
Thank you very much, I’ll see myself out.
@SouthsideJohnny 6:50 AM
If you start with Taco Bell, and then take out the joy, and add in a horror show, and surgically extract any hint of hope, you get Del Taco. One of my friends loves it.
Call me more of a oenophile, but certainly Zytho-tolerant. I’d definitely go the zytho route with my DELTACO Crunchtada.
I think we’d all be better off if the Musk fella would climb into one of his rockets and do about a hundred years of SPACETIME.
IMPRISONED, BEER and CHEMLABS made this play somewhat like a @JohnX tribute puzzle. I have an abiding faith that he’ll pop back up one day and matter of factly account for his long absence.
Pretty crazy that @Nancy DNFed on an answer that she herself debuted (ENBIES)
Wonderful debut puzzle, though easy peasy for a Saturday. Thanks, Spencer Leach.
You mean, was I cool? Doi!
@R Duke
@Pablo (7:25) beat you to it.
Easy. It would have been easier if I hadn’t had problems with spelling ENBIES. I’ve seen it a couple different ways in puzzles and didn’t not pick the one this puzzle wanted initially. Also me too for BORED TO tEArs before DEATH which didn’t help.
Smooth grid with plenty of good stuff, liked it a bunch! A fine debut!
I echo all kudos about this puzzle! So much to like and so many clever misdirects! Is BOREDTOtears/DEATH a kea loa? Yep, had tears at first but I probably actually say BOREDTODEATH more often. I also plopped in IMPRISONED and SUI but then really struggled with the rest of the NW, and cried out D’OH when I figured out CHIPS which helped me finally realize RUMOUR was the modern kind of “tea.” Wicked fun!
Ya know, I’m pretty sure SAT scores were NOT on my H.S. transcript but MAYBE they are now? That would’ve been SO nice when doing college applications because you not only had to send your high school transcript but also arrange to have the SAT score sent. (At least I THINK it was that way…and of course…no computers, everything by mail)
CHIPS to PRIDEPARADES to IMPRISONED, NEONS, IMPALA- I almost couldn’t type fast enough. But then I got to HEADDESK and had no idea whatsoever. Needed nearly all the crosses for DENIECE too. So, confidence shaken, I encountered the evil “Flower shower” crossing “Leave in the dust” which for some reason went right over my head.
Liked SIMONSAYS, PROMOCODE, the clue for STOCK. Not being a video gamer I was pleased to get PLAYERONE from PRAY and the party was over. Alas!
I’m certain I’m not alone in applauding the diligent avoidance of using obscure names of celebrities, especially those from nations with names having odd spelling, as filler. Sick of that.
Since when do SAT Scores go on a High School transcript?
Oops, missed that!
I was surprised to know DELTACO. We don't have any here in San Francisco. I suppose because of all of our excellent independent burrito joints. A local food critic claims that the burrito is the most popular fast food here. We do have a handful of Taco Bells, though.
I liked it regardless of the day of the week.,
I had PROMENADE before PROMO CODE because maybe the hotel desk you're checking out of would be at the end of a promenade? It seemed logical at the time.
This one felt more like "medium" to me, as I was repeatedly stymied by unknowns in the NW, NE, and SW: I didn't know CRIMP, DEL TACO, DENIECE, or HEAD DESK, and I didn't "know" the terrifically clued RUMOUR until the I got HUMOR (apt in the wit of the cluing and cute -OR v -OUR contrast). So, I whooshed in fits and starts. My favorite entry was SIMON SAYS, and I liked how it paralleled SAT SCORES, evoking for me the span from the grade school playground to the end of high school, nicely linked by the SPACE TIME continuum.
Do-overs: fore before NSFW, BEEs before BEER :) Help from previous puzzles: ENBIES.
@Conrad 6:14 - I think we're the only ones so far who hit the golf course "links" instead of heading to the Internet. It's funny how often I find I've gone astray on the same path as you :)
Decent puzzle but way too easy. What am I supposed to do the rest of this rainy morning?
To @kitshef, @Weezie, @egs and others:
The back story of ENBIES appearing in Will's and my puzzle. Or a rare glimpse at how the sausage gets made. Here, meticulously preserved for posterity, is a snippet from my email to Will N when I saw the finished grid for that particular puzzle:
"There are a few things that furrowed my brow like ENBIES and OBVI (no idea whatever!), but I'm not going to worry my pretty little head about them. I'll let you clue them of course, and beg you, whatever on earth they are, to clue them as kindly and gently as possible. I always think that the in-the-language fill should be clued as deviously as possible and the arcane, unfamiliar fill should be clued as easily and slam-dunk-ily as possible."
Best, Nancy
So if I didn't remember ENBIES today, my less than hands-on approach to it back then probably explains it:)
CHEM LAB was easy to get, as was the whole puzzle. But as others have pointed out, CHEM is an abbreviation and the cluing should have indicated so.
To the sonnet queriers: Sonnets have fourteen lines, each one five feet long, so to speak. I was going to quibble about "most" vs "all" sonnets but I expect there are many exceptions and I'd be out of my depth to do so.
Thx, Spencer; just right for a Sat. puz! 😊
Med. (bang on Sat. avg)
Thot I might be in for big trouble, getting bubkes in the NW, but the upper Mid-west came to the rescue, and rest is history.
Scariest cross: ENBIES / DENIECE, altho, ENBy/IES seemed to resonate. I see we've had one or both fairly recently.
Fun solve! :)
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Now beating a HASTY retreat to Matthew Sewell's Sat. Stumper. 🤞
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Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness & Freudenfreude to all 🙏
I think poetic feet are syllables
Uniclues:
1) She's not his wife. She's not mad. That's not even his attic.
2) Implement for a really l-o-o-o-o-ng crew race
3) Ready or not, you will be going down that aisle!
4) "If you can wait just a teeny tiny minute, my purse is right upstairs, and no, I would never, ever lie to you."
1) HUMOR EYRE MEGA
2) SPACETIME OAR
3) WED, SIMON SAYS!
4) IMPLIES CAB FARE
I thought I was going to have to cheat; I was stuck at the SUI/RUMOUR crossing. But somehow SUI bubbled up in my mid, and I realized that HUMOR could be sidsected as well as HonOR (I had IMPLIES but misread my lettering), and I was done. But I needed to come here to understand it, because I wasn't thinking of that kind of tea in the British context. I thought maybe the "bit" was so small that you might say it was 'merely a rumour of tea.'
I did better with ENBIRS, though it took me a few moments to say it out loud in my mind, and it could have been DEmIECE for all I knew.
Unlike Rex, I don't particularly long for puzzles that whoosh, but this one was a lot of fun.
@Nat, I think you're probably pulling our leg, or sending us up, or something, but just in case you're sincere a sonnet is a poem with 14 lines of pentameter. I'll leave the translating and the math to you. I'd never compare you to a summer's day, though.
@Roo, it you're still wondering what language SRIRACHA is in, read the clue again. I want to point out that several years ago I predicted it would work its way into the grid.
yep. Not easy easy, but kinda easy for a SatPuz.
Gotcha Jaws of Themelessness, so the puz passes that requirement nicely.
no-knows weren't too bad, for a SatPuz: SUI. ENBIES. BETTY. How to spell SRIRACHA & DENIECE.
faves: BATTY with BETTY. HEADDESK. SPACETIME. SIMONSAYS & its clue.
fave crossin clues: For PLOP/DELTACO.
staff weeject pick: ETS. Plural abbreve meat. Plus, clue provided a primo schlock viewin tip.
What was the seed entry? M&A votes for either POLEDANCE or PRIDEPARADES.
Thanx for the themeless fun, Mr. Leach dude. And congratz on a primo debut.
Masked & Anonymo2Us
**gruntz**
@Nancy(10:31) “I'm really good at forgetting stuff that pops into my life momentarily and then pops right out again.“
I was wondering why I didn’t remember it either but that explains it precisely.
SAT score on a transcript?! How did that make it past the NYTXW editor!?
If, like me, you haven't looked at a HS transcript in a few decades, this information might be useful re SATSCORES:
According to the College Board, most high school transcripts currently include, along with your courses, grades, credits, and GPA:
"Your scores on AP Exams, the SAT, or other standardized tests"
Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday were apparently on the easy to very easy side for many... not for me. (granted, on Friday it was just because I hit a brick wall in the SW, but the rest of the grid filled in quickly)
Today, though... Wednesdayish time, even faster than this week's Wednesday (no weird stuff like NEHI or VUE to slow me down). I only really had trouble trying to figure out what came before DESK, and DENIECE was unknown, but thankfully I knew ENBIES.
SouthsideJohnny @6:50 - (maybe take my words with a grain of salt, I study math, not physics) SPACETIME is definitely 4-dimensional, it just has an unusual notion of "length" so to speak. The math checks out but only if you DON'T measure length like you would in standard 3D space. For instance, two points in space-time can have a negative amount of "length" between them (?!?) which just means that they can't directly affect each other, because that would require moving faster than the speed of light.
Definitely not Saturday-level, but OAR with the Mondayest of Monday clues? Come on.
“Leave in the dust” = LOSE (49D)? If I leave you in the dust, I lose? If I’m left in the dust, do I win? If this is in some context besides racing, what am I missing? Hep me, please (asking for Joe Bleaux, btw).
HEAD DESK??!!
Note to both @Will and @Joel - a "Share" is "a little bit of company". Stock is "all the shares" by which ownership is divided. We've now had this error in both the mini and the full puzzle this week.
This puzzle really Satted, to use our jargon for how a puzzle fits the day of the week. Got it all, but only after a long struggle. Nice quote from my favorite author, E.B. White. Biggest surprise: PLAYER ONE. Used to play a lot of pinball, but a long time ago now.
I was delighted to see the reference to the Count of Monte Cristo. Brought back a memory of a long ago February, when I read the French version of the novel, while my oldest daughter read the English version, and we would compare notes about the plot. I am amazed to this day that our local public library actually had the French version on its shelves.
Definitely not BORED TO DEATH this morning.
I really like seeing common mistakes on this blog - makes me feel better for CHIMP/HUMOUR. Close to my Saturday average because of guesses for HEADDESK, DELTACO, BETTY, and SUI.
Still a very enjoyable Saturday.
RP here. Lines of poetry are made of feet, which are little rhythmic units. Iambic pentameter = 5 iambs per line, for instance. Most sonnets in English have five feet per line and all sonnets have 14 lines, so, yes, 14x5 = 70 (syllables are not the relevant unit here)
I thought this would be a typical Saturday struggle, as I started in the NW and was getting nowhere. Then I was surprised how quickly I was able to start filling in other parts of the grid. I thought HEADDESK had to be wrong, but saw no issue with the crossers, so I shrugged and moved on. I can never remember how to spell SRIRACHA (for a while I just had the SR), so the NE went in a little slower than it otherwise would have. Finished where I started, in the NW, which I thought was the hardest section.
Definitely an easy Saturday today. My two hold-ups were spelling 43A ENBeES and being BORED TO tEArs. Why does facepalm seem a legitimate verb but HEADDESK feels like it needs some connecting words in the middle?
May I start by saying that I want every Saturday to be like this. Yes I do.
There were a few whooshes for me and so I knew @Rex might rate this as easy. It took me several hours. I pulled hair from my brain, I took the pups for a walk...put on my big girl pants and plugged away.. Joy to my world.
So many things I didn't know. CRIMP? NSFW? And then, HUMOR at 3D's little bit of tea. I asked my British husband for that answer. He didn't know it....Well, neither did I.
I left the north and concentrated on the middle. SRIRACHA? How to spell it.... Run to the fridge, get my bottle out and check for spelling. Done.
Answers came in slow flows and when they did, I was delighted with myself. Back up to the north and entered PRIDE PARADE and SAT SCORES. How about that? Check to see if they are correct. They are..so happy with myself. Getting you two along with IMPRISONED opened up a small flood gate. The top NW was still a little empty so I moved back to the ART CENTER. Good...SPACE TIME and PROMO CODE in you go because I knew SIMON SAYS. This is how you do it. Inch by inch...You're getting there!
I get to the lowermost west side. What's an expression stronger than a facepalm? I don't know. I should know. I had DESK but what to put in front of it? You see, I had mileage instead of CAB FARE. Cheat. Damn, I don't want to. Ah...CAB FARE!. So what is a HEAD DESK? Never heard of it. I looked you up and saw a picture of a man banging his head on a desk. I've never done that. Then ENBIES had me. I knew what it should be but I couldn't remember if we ever danced together. Look it up to make sure you're correct. You are.
Move to the east. Is it really PLAYER ONE? I guessed right. Guess after guess. Fun. Especially when you are right.
Back upstairs and staring at 1A. Who uses fingertips only while rock climbing? You end in P, that's all I know. Frustration and a cheat gave me CRIMP and NSFW...Those two cheats saved my bacon.
I loved having to really think hard and hope my answers were correct. This puzzle did that for me.
Now to read all of the comments and hope that a bazillion of you didn't say that this was the easiest Saturday they've ever done.
I'll take more of these, Spencer. Oh, are you a Brit perhaps?
I incorrectly saw the clue for 11D DEL TACO as reading "Fast food chain whose name becomes another company when its first two letters are removed" so I was wondering what the heck L TACO is. Didn't see my mistake until coming here. It didn't rate a facepalm or HEADDESK but it definitely was a "D'oh!" moment.
Nice to know I've been a lifelong "zythophile" (58A). Now I have a more sophisticated sounding term for the mundane "beer lover". (Kind of like using the Latin rebus as a more sophisticated sounding term for an xword puzzle with the mundane gimmick of having multiple letters in a single square.)
I think that many high school grads would benefit from taking multiple GAP YEARs (13D) before going to college. Perhaps getting kicked around some by being in the real world would give them a more appreciative, seriousness of purpose approach to being in college. A hitch in the Navy and three years working in industry between high school and going on to college did that for me.
I got most of it. I missed some.
Does anybody care? Please, somebody.
Omg @GILL I…I should’ve gone to MY FRIDGE too! I had “RATCHA” filled in and kept thinking…SciRATCHA. ❤️❤️❤️
@Beezer 3:57. Sometimes the fridge is my best friend......!!!!!!
@pablito and @R. Duke. Call my simple but both of you made me laugh out loud. DENEPHEW.....What I'm worried about is that the next time soul singer Williams comes out she won't be DE NIECE!.
@Nancy...Do you think I will ever forget ENBIES now? :-)
@Anon 12:49 if you see this:
You study math: the concept of "negative length" seems oxymoronic to me? Is length different from distance? 'Coz I thought one of the definitional properties of a distance is D >= 0. So I'm intrigued, are the physicists taking liberties with mathematics again? Or am I out of date? (well that last question is easy...)
See reply just below.
Things change.
But people do say “I have stock in that company “ and clues are based on popular speech not technical language. So it is a valid answer.
Another one of those “when it was easy . . . “ days for me. Loved the cleverness, but was absolutely stumped on some things - until I wasn’t. A perfect Saturday. Took tenacity and rewarded me for the effort.
Tuesday called. It wants it Puzzle back.
"...mighty morphin' Brontë orphan..
"
Yeah. Of course The College Board says that. They’re the ones who administer the SAT in a time that schools are moving away from the exam entirely. Just bc The College Board says that, doesn’t make it true.
Enjoyed it, but strangely got stuck on VASE (Flower shower). Had no idea what it wanted, even when I had ASE. When it finally clicked, I had a bit of annoyance instead of the joy I wanted. Oh well, I can read the clue now and get it.
JOB CODE
IDIG what A POLEDANCE IMPLIES,
yet I'm BOREDTO DEATH with RUMOUR,
BETTY DROPSAHINT TO PLAYER guys
ans SAYS, "It's PRIDE, get the HUMOR?"
--- SIMON RICE
Nobody has ever said: I have to go to chemistry laboratory now. It was, it is, and it always will be: chem lab. It's everyday vernacular. No hints needed! Plus, it's Saturday, no handholding allowed!
PROM had me flummoxed for the longest time. I wanted a dance. Then, to later get a DABCE with a POLE, Wwell...not the same thing at all.
So it went. Another dnf, bit by bit.
Diana, LIW
ENBIES?? Yougottabekidding. Delete that trash from your word lists NOW, constructors. I don't object to gender?s, just to that ridiculous shorthand.
Otherwise a pretty typical Saturday, maybe a bit on the easy side. Par.
Wordle par.
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